Draft:Augusto Caesar de Angeles Espiritu

Augusto Caesar de Angeles Espiritu (27 August 1928 – 14 August 1993) was a Filipino scholar, economist, lawyer, human rights activist and ambassador to the Philippines in the Federal Republic of Germany.

1929-1958: Early Life and Education

A.C. Espiritu was the third of four children from his father’s second wife, Fortunata de Angeles (*1900 +1985). His father, Patricio Espiritu (1877-1948), who had presumably fought in the Philippine Revolution of 1896, was a teacher[1], entrepreneur and lawyer from Nueva Ecija, eventually moving to Makat, where he was appointed as a justice of the peace in 1909 under the US “Insular government”. [2]

Being from the protestant minority, Caesar Espiritu studied law at Silliman University in Dumaguete, where he passed his AB in 1949. He subsequently enrolled at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman in Manila, where he completed his LLB in law in 1951. From 1959-60, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the UP Student Newspaper, The Collegian, a highly prestigious position at the university. At UP Diliman, he also became a member of the Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity, one of several groupings associated with the Philippine elite.

He won a scholarship to Harvard Law School, where he completed his MPA and LLM in 1953 and a PhD in Political Economy in 1956.

Upon returning to the Philippines, he joined the Far Eastern University, where he soon became head of the Department of Economics and later set up the Institute of Graduate Studies.

From 1958 to 1959, he was director of loans and credit at the Central Bank of the Philippines before moving on to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce. [3]

1959-1970: Chamber of Commerce and World Council of Churches

In 1961, he was one of the awardees of The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of the Year Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the Philippines.

Paper clippings of TOYM awardees 1961

He began working in the Philippine Chamber of Industry (PCI), quickly rising to executive secretary (1960) [4], 2nd vice president (1964) and president (1966). He was also vice president of the Credit Corporation of the Philippines and continued to teach intermittently at UP.

During the presidencies of Carlos Garcia and Diosdado Macapagal he was actve in Filipino politcal circles, becoming Vice President of the “Fiestas for Progress”, instgated by Raul Manglapus and Hilarion Henares Jr.[5] He was, however, primarily known as an economist and educator, and became well-versed in economic development. As president of the Philippine Chamber of Industry, and was sent to Moscow in 1967 by President Ferdinand Marcos to prepare trade ties with the Soviet Union. In the same year, he was named to the advisory council on education of the Secretary of Education.[6]

As a devout protestant Christian, he was also active in the World Student Christan Federation (WSCF) and became vice-president of the executive committee in 1964. Like many others in the WSCF, he went on to work with the World Council of Churches (WCC), particularly after the seminal Conference on Church and Society in 1966. He was influential in the discussions on decolonization and development and was one of the most prominent Filipinos at the WCC during this period.

At a meeting of the WSCF in Prague, in 1967

1970-1982: Constitutional Convention, Martial Law and Human Rights lawyer

From 1970-72, he was a member of the Philippine Constitutional Convention that, ultimately, was overtaken by events when Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed Martial Law.[7] [8] During this time, he connected with several delegates who were to become prominent human rights lawyers and opposition figures, such as Jovito Salonga, Salvador “Doy” Laurel, Raul Manglapus, Eugene Tan, Sedfrey Ordoñez, Emmanuel “Noli” Santos, Heherson “Sonny” Alvarez, Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel and others.[9] [10] Of the 320 delegates chosen to write a new constitution, around a dozen were arrested after the declaration of martial law on 23rd September 1972, and a good number went into exile or undercover so that only 14 delegates - one of whom being Espiritu - voted against the new constitution, written by Marcos loyalists in only two months and put to the vote on 27th November[11].

His book How Democracy was Lost, published posthumously in 1993, describes the events during the last months of the convention and is frequently cited as a historical document. He remained in the Philippines during the years of martial law, working as a lawyer in his brother’s law office and teaching at the University of the Philippines, where he eventually became director of the graduate studies programme.[12] Throughout this time, he wrote and edited numerous books and articles on constitutional law, government policy and public enterprise while simultaneously visiting symposia abroad and writing on issues of human rights, particularly at the WCC and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).

In 1980, he became a member of the WCC Advisory Group on Economic Matters, part of the WCC influential Commission on the Churches’ Participation in Development (CCPD). His expertise in development, human rights and constitutional law led him to act as an independent expert to the ICJ on multiple occasions, as well as a consultant to the United Nations on behalf of the ICJ.

In 1981, he was invited to the Commission’s Congress in the Hague. His participation at an ICJ seminar in Penang, Malaysia, together with José Diokno later that year, served as a springboard for the creation in 1982 of the Regional Council on Human Rights in Asia, one of the first regional human rights organisations in Asia. He went on to co-found the Asian Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (ACHRO) and the local NGO PROCES, which provided legal support to migrant workers, farmers and small fishermen. He also worked closely as a consultant for the International Center for Law in Development in New York and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Bonn.

On various occasions, he represented the Philippines at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York and at IMF-World Bank meetings in Berlin and Manila, while also serving as a consultant for the ILO and UNCTAD in Geneva.

1983-1989: Exile, return and ambassadorship

He left the Philippines in 1983, ostensibly to take up a teaching post at a French university. However, the well-known opposition journalist and publisher Max Soliven later claimed that Espiritu had secretly secured an assurance of asylum for several opposition figures, including Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino and Raul Manglapus, in West Germany, as their status in the United States was under review at the behest of president Ferdinand Marcos, and the president found out about this.[13] The implication is that he may have feared for his safety had he stayed in the Philippines.

Between 1983 and 1986, he was a visiting professor at the University of Aix-Marseille (France), a research fellow at the Max Plack Institute in Heidelberg (Germany) and a senior fellow at the University of Otowa (Canada). During this time, he also supported Salvador “Doy” Laurel, one of the leading figures trying to unite the opposition to Ferdinand Marcos, and became chief economic advisor of the opposition party UNIDO.

After the “EDSA revolution” in 1986, he was appointed ambassador to West Germany under the new Aquino presidency. As ambassador, he promoted private German investment in the Philippines, secured funding for the University of the Philippines, De la Salle and Silliman University, and greatly strengthened ties between the two countries. He reportedly secured a massive 25 million German Marks in yearly development aid, roughly a third of total German development aid at the time [14], and persuaded Germany to participate in the Philippine Assistance Programme[15], a US-led initiative for a “mini-Marshall Plan” for the Philippines.[16]

Hosting then-Vice President Doy Laurel while Ambassador to West Germany in 1988

On January 14th 1989, nine months after being confirmed in his post unanimously, in record time and reportedly receiving a standing ovation by the Commission on Appointments presided by Jovito Salonga, he learnt without forewarning or identifiable reason through a leak to the press that Benny Tan, a former Bureau of Internal Revenue commissioner, had been appointed to his post. The story was reported in several newspapers, but it was not until a week later, on January 21st, that Espiritu received formal notice from the office of the presidency that Tan had been appointed in his stead.[17]

No reasons for his dismissal were ever given, although some newspaper articles rumoured that as an active human rights advocate and chairman of the Asian Coalition of Human Rights Organisations, he was at least implicitly critical of human rights violations under the Aquino government, and in particular of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. [18]

1990-1993: German Order of Merit and return to teaching

Shortly after vacating his post, the German government awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstorden grosses Kreuz), the highest honour awarded by the German state.

With then-President of the Federal Republic of Germany Richard von Weizsäcker

From 1991-1993, he was Professor of Law and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. After leaving Warwick, the United Nations Organization asked him to organise and coordinate a training programme in constitution drafting for the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. However, he died suddenly and unexpectedly from bacterial pneumonia upon returning to Europe from a trip to the Philippines in June 1993.

Selection of Books and Articles 27 Phil. L.J. 19 (1952) The Suspension of the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus: Its Justfcaton and Duration Freedom and National Security, Harvard University Press, 1956 “Economic Dependence and Independence – As seen from Southeast Asia” in Munby, D. (ed.) Economic Growth in Southeast Asia, Associaton Press, New York, 1966 The Problems of our Republic,‎R.M. Garcia Publishing House, Manila, 1968 Parliamentary Government, UP Law Center, Manila, 1976 AUGUSTO CESAR ESPIRITU (ed.), Philconsa Reader on Consttutonal and Policy Issues - An Anthology of Writngs from the Ofcial Publicatons of the Philippine Consttuton Associaton Concerning the Natonal Polity, University of the Philippines Press, 1979 "A Filipino Looks at Multnatonal Corporatons" in Espiritu, A. C. et al. (eds), Philippine Perspectves on Multnatonal Corporatons, University of the Philippines Law Center, G. Rangel & Sons, Manila, 1978 Central Planning and the Expansion of Public Enterprise, Philippine Consttuton Associaton and UP Law Center, 1979 Yogesh Atal (ed.) "The Call for Indigenizaton" in Internatonal Social Science Journal, Vol XXXIII, No.1, 1981 “Mobilizaton and Organizaton for Partcipaton in Decision-Making” in Rural Development and Human Rights in South East Asia, Internatonal Commission of Jurists, 1981 de Gaspar, D., Espiritu, C. & Green, R. (eds), World Hunger: A Christan Reappraisal, World Council of Churches Press, Geneva, 1981 “Keeping Human Life Human: Altering Structures of Power, Economic Benefts and Insttutons” in Development, Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Internatonal Commission of Jurists, Pergamon Press, 1981 “Taking Human Rights Seriously in the Philippines: The Need for New Approaches” in Human

Rights Activism in Asia: Some Perspectives, Problems and Approaches, Asian Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (ACHRO), 1984 “Alternative Development and Law” in Law, Human Rights and Legal Services: A Neglected Field of Development Cooperation, Friedrich-Naumann Stfung, COMDOR, 1986 Law and Human Rights in the Development of ASEAN, Friedrich-Naumann Stfung, 1986 The Political Economy of Global Debt and Underdevelopment Institute of International Legal Studies—University of the Philippines Law Center, International Relations Pamphlet Series No. 5, Quezon City, Philippines, 1993 Of Bonds and Bondage: A Reader on Philippine Debt, Edited by Emmanuel S. de Dios and Joel Rocamora, TNI/Philippine Center for Policy Studies/Freedom from Debt Coalition, 1992 Caesar Espiritu & Sammy Adelman in Adelman, S. & Paliwala, A. (eds.), “The Debt Crisis: Underdevelopment and the Limits of the Law” in Law and Crisis in the Third World HowDemocracywasLost::ApolitcaldiaryoftheConsttutonalConventonof1971-1972, New Day Publishers, Manila, 1993 (posthumous) [1] htp://apnuevaecija.blogspot.com/2012/08/history-of-deped-nueva-ecija_12.html [2] htps://archive.org/details/acx2371.0001.001.umich.edu/page/76 [3] htps://www.ofcialgazete.gov.ph/1958/05/31/ofcial-month-in-review-may-16-may-31- 1958/ [4] htps://www.ofcialgazete.gov.ph/1960/11/14/presidents-week-in-review-november-6- november-12-1960/ [5] htp://benmaynigo.blogspot.com/2010/07/raul-manglapus-quintessental-atenean.html [6] htps://archive.org/stream/MOP-Vol1-Ferdinand-E-Marcos/8OR%20-%20FM_djvu.txt

[7] htps://subselfe.com/2020/09/20/a-mere-scrap-of-paper-the-consttutonal-conventon- hijacked-under-martal-law/ [8] htps://philippinediaryproject.com/2013/09/21/the-delegate-and-the-president-contrastng- diaries-on-martal-law/ [9] htps://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1972/mar1972/gr_l_34022_1972.html [10] htps://indiohistorian.tumblr.com/page/11 [11] htps://hrvvmemcom.gov.ph/roll-of-victms/roll-of-victms-motu-proprio/aquilino-q- pimentel-jr/ [12] htps://docplayer.net/85173612-Ol-ete-contents-vol-v-no-1-quezon-city-philippines- administrative-issuances.html [13] Soliven, M.” Why did Cory send Caesar a ‘goodbye’ note” in The Philippine Star, February 9, 1989. [14] Foz, Vicente B. “Whatever happened to Caesar Espiritu” in Manila Bulletin, February 8, 1989 [15] “West Germany to join in PAP” in The Manila Chronicle, March 8, 1989 [16] Rood, S. “The ‘Mini-Marshall Plan’ for the Philippines in Southeast Asian Affairs, pp. 274-291 (18 pages) [17] Henares Jr., H. “Alex, Cesar: ousted by Council of Trent ?” in Philippine Daily Inquirer, February 21, 1989 [18] Cacho-Olivares, N. « A demigod in Bonn” and “Malacañang’s ‘bulong’ brigade scores again” in Business World, February 21 & February 22, 1989.